Having concluded its drilling programme under the old Wenot mine, Canadian company Omai Gold Mines Limited (OGML) has moved on to another section of the mine, which had previously not seen any commercial mining.
According to a statement sent out by the company, the drill programme saw 16 holes totalling 9,367 metres being drilled. Final assay results are pending, but in the meantime, Omai has commenced gold exploration on the East Wenot Extension and on the Broccoli Hill (BH) target.
Fennel“This area has seen no commercial mining; however, abundant pitting in the surficial alluvial material attests to gold that has attracted small scale miners. Significant gold mineralisation has been identified in this area by several shallow holes drilled along this trend from 1993-95 but testing to depths of only 50 to 75 metres into fresh rock,” Omai said in its statement.
According to the gold company, drilling will start in the middle of November, and the eastern extension of the Wenot project will be explored. Meanwhile, Broccoli Hill sits less than 300 metres east of the Fennell pit and 300 metres north of the Wenot pit.
“Combined, these two pits produced over 3.7 million ounces of gold. BH has been an attraction for artisanal miners for over 100 years, and has seen minor surficial exploration for several decades. Previous auger and soil surveys have identified numerous gold anomalies on BH, including one auger hole that sampled 12.4 g/t Au from a 4 to 6 meters depth in saprolite adjacent to a large area of pork-knocker (artisanal miner) activity”, the company has said.
“The abundance of past placer gold workings in the lowlands flanking the hill, together with the numerous scattered artisanal workings on the hill itself, suggests a gold source somewhere on BH. It is a very compelling target, interestingly, with little to no drilling,” the company also said.
Meanwhile, Omai’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elaine Ellingham was quoted as expressing excitement over the company’s plans. She noted that Omai’s drilling plans will test the extent of its holdings and its economic potential.
“Areas such as Broccoli Hill and East Wenot have excellent potential for both significant new discoveries and for expanding known zones of mineralisation. Wenot East is one of those areas where limited historic drilling identified very interesting gold mineralisation, but was not pursued,” Ellingham said.
“These offer great opportunities for us to test the extent of these zones and assess their economic potential. We expect to begin drilling the East Wenot Extension and to complete a couple of initial holes at Broccoli Hill before the holiday break in December.”
When it comes to the Fennell pit, the company also announced plans to start its drill programme there in the second quarter of 2022. It was explained that previous explorations by gold company Iamgold at the pit in 2007 established Fennell as a primary target on Omai.
“This drilling identified a significant gold deposit beneath the past producing pit. The Fennell pit produced 2.4 million ounces between 1993 and 2004. It was mined to a depth of 250m, where it bottomed at a barren diabase sill. After production ceased, Iamgold completed the exploration beneath the sill and completed a resource report.
“This drilling reached a maximum depth of about 960 metres, with the deepest holes ending in mineralisation, suggesting even further depth potential. Omai has started modelling this historic data, and plans to initiate a drill programme on the Fennell target in Q2 of next year. This work will require deeper holes to verify the historic resource and to explore the depth extent of this mineralisation,” Omai explained.
Omai Gold Mines, which returned to the Wenot and Fennell pits at the Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) site in 2020 after leaving Guyana in 2015, had announced in December 2020 that it would be pressing forward with the 5000-metre drilling programme.
